The Morphine In My Veins (Redux)
by Revynant
Summary: They'd ventured through the lowest circles of hell and survived. They were alive, and they were together. Now they are plagued by something they'd seen as forbidden to criminals; love. A KakuHida fanfic. *Thanks to LaBlanc for the original description*
1. Chapter 1

Kakuzu snaps into reality with a start. His head pounds, jolting his body with waves of pain, and thick shadows cast by large, lush trees cloak his crumpled form. How had he been brought to such a sorry state he wonders as he lays motionless and stares vacantly at the radiant woodland before him. He had been in a battle, that much was clear. But when had he fought? Who had he fought? A breeze passes and shakes the leaves. When it washes over his body, Kakuzu remembers and the vivid memories play before his eyes like a reel of film. He had just finished extracting the two and three tailed jinchuurikis from their hosts after sitting and performing the tedious ritual in his astral form while his body sat in a comatose state for three days. Afterwords, he had trekked from where he sat to the barren land of dead trees located in the outskirts of Konohagakure. He had wanted to fetch the bounty on that one mans head, but he had probably been sent back home and buried by now.

Then he remembered the ambush. They sprang from nowhere. The shadows captured him, held him in place like metal holding a magnet, and then the shadow brat launched a bomb laced kunai at him. Kakuzu easily evaded, but then he saw the boy wasn't alone. With him was some tart, a boy with much girth, and the famed Kakashi Hatake. A battle ensued and Kakuzu fared well. He managed to draw the copycat nin to a stalemate even while he had the three children nipping at his heels. The smart one left halfway through the battle and the remaining chunin and jonin were overwhelmed by the akatsuki's power. Kakuzu had them in his grasp, he recalls, ready to burn them alive till nothing but ash remained. But just as he launched the condensed flames fueled by wind, a cyclone seemed to throw itself at him.

The fire dissipated and turned to steam. The former Taki-nin had no choice but to release his prey and jump back. When he could see across the field again, four more people stood alongside the others. Two fled into the forest as soon as they had arrived, but the other two stayed. Of those two, Kakuzu mostly remembers the face of the boy in the dirty orange jumpsuit. The kyuubi. He remembered the thrill that overwhelmed him. Catching three biju in one day would be a remarkable feat. The akatsuki only needed five more tailed beasts to give the altar all nine irides. Unfortunately, Kakuzu found that he was once again faced with a style of jutsu that made old scars burn. The wood style ninjutsu of Hashirama. The weapon of the man he failed to kill all those years ago, before he was a wanted criminal, before he was a bitter shell of a man once proud and beloved.

Seeing the man who wielded such an ability intensified Kakuzu's blood lust. He became to wrapped up in the heat of battle. The sadistic shinobi changed his form using his tendrils and hurled himself at his terrified opponents. He was caught off guard when the kyuubi appeared behind him. Concentrated chakra that resembled a shuriken with a blue orb in the center sat in the jinchuurikis palm. It was a wind style jutsu, that much was obvious. The high pitched keening that raped his ears and the harsh breeze that followed it told Kakuzu so.

He could feel the incredible aura emanating from it. If he were hit, it would devastate his stitched up body. Amidst the writhing mass of jet black tentacles, none of his opponents saw Kakuzu switch himself out for a clone. Using the body swap jutsu developed by Pein, first used by Kisame and Itachi, Kakuzu put his own twist on the technique and had to sacrifice a heart to put into the clone so it wouldn't disappear when struck since he needed time to put a bit of distance between the enemy and himself. He pulled the jutsu off successfully and slipped through the jungle of tendrils, but though his clone was the one hit with the brunt of the kyuubis wrath, the chakra expanded and Kakuzu was caught in the windy maw. It pushed everyone and everything back as it tore up the land as easy as the claws of a hawk tearing the supple flesh of a sheep.

The strong current drew blood as tiny daggers slowly ripped his skin. The drums of his ears popped while he tried to swim through the air in an awkward, jerky dance. From a distance, Kakuzu figured that he must have looked like a rag-doll caught up in a whirlwind. Somehow he managed to wrench his body away from the spinning sphere and fell to the earth, his body feeling as heavy as a boulder. All the breath left his lungs as they were crushed between his weight and the ground. He gasped for air and struggled to his feet. His body felt...wrong. Like someone had meticulously picked him apart, threw the pieces into a blender and tried to reconstruct the mess. With his insides now feeling like a viscous soupy mess inside him, his skin feeling like it had been encased in sandpaper and his vision doubling, Kakuzu knew trying to fight would be foolish.

So, as much as he didn't want to, he ran on shaky legs toward the lush forest that bordered the wastelands. As he ran, Kakuzu heard his clones agonized screams echo over the noise of the wailing wind. Hearing his own strangled cries chilled the elder akatsuki.

He isn't sure how far he ran, but he must have traversed a considerable amount of ground seeing as to how the only thing visible through the trees were more lively trees. Groaning, he brings a hand, dusty and aching, to his forehead. He was forgetting something. Something important. The reason the shadow wielder left...Hidan.

Kakuzu sprang to his feet but regretted the hasty movement. The world whirled around him. He stumbles and latches onto a tall oak, the rough bark pricking his fingers as he draws in shallow, raspy breaths. The metal tang in his mouth was making his sick. _Water, _he thinks. He saunters through a seemingly endless maze of trees and goes into a coughing fit. He feels ready to collapse. He hadn't been so exhausted in a long while. The sadist swears he can he the trickle of water nearby, but his injured ears could be lying to him. Still, he is lucky enough to find a small babbling brook winding through the land.

Falling to his knees, the weary shinobi falls to his knees and plunges his hands into the icy water. The cuts that laced the misers hands burned as the water seeped into his open flesh. He takes a hesitant sip. It seems clean, he decides, then dips his head down into the creek and begins gulping the crystalline liquid. It is painstakingly sweet to his parched throat. His thirst was slaked, but he was still dehydrated. It also didn't help that hunger pricked his empty belly. Spying ripe black orbs blooming on a line of shrubs, Kakuzu crawled over and popped several berries into his mouth. The tart taste exploded on his tongue. The intake of food only made him hungrier and seemed to worsen his nausea.

The banker rose and rubbed his face. Being in the fire country worried him and staying unnerved him further. He had to find Hidan, quickly. He continued on weak legs, body breaking and will deteriorating. Nonetheless, he carried on. Where would he be today had he allowed circumstance to trump him in the past?

The passing breeze made his body ache as it touched the lips of his lacerations and threatened to push him down, but Kakuzu managed to hold his ground. Shadows hung on his frame, making the weary nin look gaunt and dark. An icy aura hung around the killer in a cloud and the dimness of the forest only made the mood gloomier. With his mind muddled, he walks on in a fog until he reaches a sunlit patch of open land. A harsh glint of light assaults his eyes. The miser saunters over to the metallic object, half steeped in dirt, and crouches next to it. Anxiety accelerates the beating of Kakuzu's heart. He gingerly wipes away the dirt with a shaky hand and confirms his fears. The weight on his shoulders becomes spine crushing as he lifts Hidan's blood smeared headband out of the clotted dirt.

Kakuzu leaps to his feet. "Oh, shit," he growls, his knuckles growing white from the force of his grip on his partners accessory. "Hidan..!" Kakuzu breaks into a half-run, half-stumble despite the muscles in his legs searing in pain, all the while calling his allies name until his voice grows hoarse. The miser didn't understand why but something compelled him to find his comrade. Hidan is loud mouthed, arrogant, cocky...basically a bundle of things that Kakuzu hates in most people put into in one being. Consequently, Hidan really got under Kakuzu's skin. Still, the priest frequently occupied Kakuzu's thoughts. Why was that? Had Kakuzu developed some sort of feeling for his companion? Was it...friendship? It was a far fetched, ludicrous idea. Kakuzu hadn't had a friend in years. He detached himself from humanity the day he destroyed his hometown. All such bonds did was cause him agony, so he killed everyone around him. The closest thing he had to friends were the group of coldblooded murderers he was associated with.

Oddly enough, Kakuzu had grown fond of having the masochist at his side, and frankly, he enjoyed the company. Even though the dumbass pissed Kakuzu off to no end, he had a tendency to lighten Kakuzu's sour moods, but Kakuzu would never admit that to anybody. Now that he thought about it, protecting Hidan had become a priority to the sadist. It gave Kakuzu a sense of purpose. Was that the reason for Kakuzu's desire to help Hidan? Or was it something more idiotic? A word came to his mind in that moment. Love.

Kakuzu stops dead in his tracks and chuckles incredulously. What the hell? _Love?_ That was the stupidest shit he'd thought up in years. Now he was just annoying himself, so he busied himself by jogging. But as he ran, a cold realization dawned on him. That body switch stunt takes a huge toll on ones body and drains a huge amount of chakra, especially when used at the spur of a moment. Kakuzu didn't even remember passing out. He could have been out of it for two minutes or two days. The sadist felt himself grow pale. A burst of adrenaline fills him and he breaks into a sprint despite how poor of a condition he was in. Arms of branches claw at him as he runs.

He collapses when he reaches a clearing. The earth in the center looks as though it had been churned recently. The elder akatsuki curses under his breath. There was nothing here. Energy spent, Kakuzu lays on the mound of uprooted earth. Its not until moments later that he hears a sort of whimpering. _The hell..?_ he thinks and presses his ear harder against the soil, straining to hear with his busted ears.

He wasn't hallucinating. A voice, choked by debris, was pathetically ebbing out from below. The voice sounded off, but the miser knew it all too well. _Oh, fuck!_ Hidan was buried alive under him. Only now did he notice the splashes of dried blood all over the terrain.

His mind raced as the banker yelled "Hidan!" Deafening silence consumes the land; no birds chirp and no leaves rustle. Even the voice stopped. After what felt like an eternity, the small cries sounded again. Kakuzu began tearing frantically at the dirt. The miser saw streaks of crimson dye the earth as his fingers raked over it. "Just hold on," he growls to the earth, a pointless sentiment since he knows the words will never reach the ears of those they were meant for. Kakuzu wasn't pious at all, but he prayed to what ever deity watched over him now._ Please, _he chanted in his mind._ Please let it not be too late. _

**Well, this took longer to get out than I expected, but I learned a valuable lesson; never type with a wireless keyboard in your lap, because if someone bumps into you and you claw at the keyboard to catch it before it can fall, it will most likely delete all the things you spent two hours typing...yeah (lol). Anyways, thank you sooo much to everyone who read this story, old and new. I wish I could thank all of you personally, but I can't since I obviously don't know you guys. Instead, I will leave a list of names of all those who reviewed/favorited/followed the old story after this end-slate. Also, to all who really liked the old story, I am sorry for the long wait. Crap came up but things are getting better, and what better way to celebrate such things than doing what I love; writing my fantasies about two immortal killers to share with all the world! I hope you enjoyed this redux. I know some people have been waiting a long time for an update, and I will post chapter 2 ASAP, and I will work on some side stories in the meantime if I can. If you have any tips, requests, or questions, feel free to contact me! Love you all and have a pleasant day. **

**~Thanks to the reviewers/favoriters/followers~ **

**Thank you- VampireDoll666, Guests #'s 1,2,3,4,5,6, and 7, makkoska, mzpearlz, Uchihacest Seduction Ninja, xXForever a SconeXx, KK1KK2, Fantasy is now Non-Fiction, Not so human anymore, MikoUchiha, derperuss, LaBlanc, Shadow of The Forgotten Ones, Leo, keeks, HouseFan92, kakuhidanekochan23, Yaoi Star 55, AkatsukiCloudRed, Alois0227, Blackeyed20, candrocks, GothicNinjaKitty, , Immortal-Immortal, Kimimaru, Ragmeister, SilentSable, The-Printer-Without-Ink, astier, itachifan incognito, jezboo, nanners40, not telling the unknown, sexyhidan, BarbieBat, Midnight-Shadow-Wolfling, Shadowsole, TheCrazyFanGirl23, hamiine5647, peneloo, Todesanbeterin, and YourDarkGuardian. [So many people omfg ;o;] **


	2. Chapter 2

Deep under layers of shattered earth, his broken body lay. Hidan was unsure of how much time had passed since he seemed to black out at random intervals, but it felt like a lifetime had passed since he'd last seen the sun. Kakuzu always told him that he was too young and hadn't experienced enough hardships to really appreciate the 'beauty in simplicity', or something like that. He liked spouting cryptic shit, but it always made the jashinist feel stupid, so he hated it. Now, however, he longed to hear his partners ranting. Hell, he wished he could hear something. Anything. The chirp of a cricket, the whooshing of wind, but no. The only noise that fell on his dirt-clogged ears was the sound of his own pathetic choking.

He bites through the foul soil and grits his teeth in frustration as he remembers the fuck-face who did this to him. The kid with the deers. He had used that damned shadow technique to capture Hidan and then brought him to the land he was now buried in. The priest suspected the child had a plan as he had methodically tossed kunais with strings into trees at peculiar angles. But then the shadows that bound the masochist faded away. The dumbass kid just stood there with a stupid look on his face. Hidan figured the leaf shinobi thought the jutsu would last longer and began panicking when things didn't go as planned. Something like that was exactly the reason why Hidan ran headfirst into battle. You can't predict whats gonna happen in a war, so why give yourself a headache trying? If you live, good. If you die, well then you were just too damn weak and had no right to live anyways. This is one subject where his opinion greatly differed from Kakuzu's. Kakuzu always had something planned, which amazed Hidan. While he would simply swing his scythe where he saw the enemy, Kakuzu would have a preemptive strike planned and managed to continue plotting as he fought. Hidan couldn't focus on such things; he was always to busy dancing around his enemies and enjoying the fear in their eyes when they knew it was over.

He saw such a look in that kids eyes. It excited Hidan. He charged after the panic-stricken boy, a long spike clutched in his hand. The masochist swung and managed to cut the kids cheek. Funny enough, the cut resembled the one he carved into that fire temple guardian. Hidan had to resist the urge to laugh. As per the usual, the jashinist lapped the blood off of his weapon and his skin grew as black as a starless sky, the only other color on him being the white that traced his bones, as he fell into his ritualistic form. Stabbing his hand, Hidan relished in the small burst of ecstasy that flooded through him. Blood fell to the ground and he quickly used it to etch his lords symbol into the ground. A grin plastered on his face, Hidan raised his weapon, and swung down. Never once did his eyes leave the face of the boy, so scared he looked ready to piss himself.

The spike plunged into Hidans heart. The kid fell. The killer smiled as he savored the rapture that blossomed in his chest and warmed the rest of his body. It was over. He turned to leave, already thinking of what he would say to his partner, how he would boast over his victory. His elation, however, was short lived. How did he get up?

The shadow brat was back on his feet. He slit Hidan's throat and caught him once again in a shadowy web. Then the little shit went on this spiel of how he had planned for this, and of how the blood the jashinist had ingested was that of his partners. His blood turned into an icy slush in his veins. That meant he..Kakuzu...

Hidan wanted to believe the words were a lie, but the triumphant look on the kids face made that difficult. Then Hidan watched ghostly fingers snake up the trees. Then the strings in the trees were wrapped around him, suspending the astounded albino in mid air like a hooked fish, and a crater suddenly opened in the world. Hidan was speechless. He watched as the kid put a cigarette in his mouth and lit the stick. _"That there is your grave,"_ he said. He threw a lighter at the paper bombs wrapped around Hidan like a strange cocoon. Time itself seemed to slow down to the pious man. Then a flash of white consumed the vision cast by his magenta eyes.

When his sight returned, pain came with it. His body was gone. Well, not really gone. He could see his foot lying listlessly across from him. Hidan looked up to the sky. Seeing his limbs around him like that scared him. He wanted to call for help, but he held his tongue. His pride wouldn't let him call out like a coward. The last thing he saw was the kid looming over him. _"...And that stupid lord Jashin isn't your god anymore; I am. And I'm passing judgement onto you!" _Hidan scowled as the words resounded in his head. But, now that he was in this situation, he didn't know what to believe. He had come to believe that Jashin would bring salvation his loyal children. So when would rescue come? Would Jashin ever arrive? Can he not do it? But he is omnipotent. Or, at least, he is supposed to be. Did he just not care? Then why had Hidan ever put his faith in him?

The cold earthy muck chokes him. Had the weight of the dirt snapped his bones? Hidan doesn't know. What about the bugs that dwell underground? What if the insects picked at his limbs and sought refuge in his hollow bones after they had devoured the marrow? He doesn't want to imagine such terrifying things, but he can't stop. When he wasn't scaring himself or praying so much that the cantos had lost all meaning, the albino thought of Kakuzu. Before they had been separated, the merciless miser had been fending off those other three konoha soldiers. Many questions buzz around in Hidan's head as though wasps had crawled in his ears and wouldn't shut up.

_Did you die?, _he wonders. _No, you were too strong for that. Did you abandon me for a new partner? Probably. I know you killed your previous comrades if they did so much as look at you funny. I know you hated me, but did you have to leave me here to rot?_

He started growing delirious. He was certain he could hear some sort of voice. It was a short cry that sounded very distant, so far that Hidan doubts it was anything at all. Probably just his mind turning on him. He couldn't even trust himself anymore. Still, he imagines Kakuzu on the other side of the world, trying to save him. He had given up thinking Jashin would come for him. Maybe Kakuzu was right about how religion was only a tool of comfort, something intangible.

So there he lay, hoping that Kakuzu would save him. It was a pitiful thing to muse. Kakuzu could be a greedy prick sometimes, but Hidan had enjoyed being around the sadist. He constantly teased Kakuzu, not for the sport of it, but because he enjoyed having someone to talk to. Even if he didn't listen half the time, Kakuzu was there. He wasn't an unseen divine entity who no human could see, which meant Hidan wasn't alone, and that was soothing. He was, however, a dark, serious man and greatly piqued his masochistic companions interest. And honestly, Hidan really wanted to know more about Kakuzu. He wanted to have a serious conversation, wanted to find out how Kakuzu came to be the man he is, especially now when he is alone again.

When Kakuzu had first approached Hidan, it made the priest happy since his religions doctrine of _ thou shall kill thy neighbor _made making friends difficult. He felt something that day. Something that he thought would go away, but it stayed and grew like moss gathering on a rock. Hidan didn't know what it was, but it intensified the longer he walked at the misers side. Just when he thought he'd discovered what had been plaguing him, he always found that the answer had eluded him time and time again.

_You never are sure of anything until your final moments, _Kakuzu had once told him._ You may think you know yourself, but you don't. You never will until you know the end is nigh. Only then will you be honest with yourself. I've died enough times to discover this. I wonder; what will you find when your time comes?_ To which Hidan replied with a rant about how he was immortal and how he knew that he was meant to serve Jashin. He had been so sure of himself, and that made Kakuzu chuckle. The bastard fucking laughed! But he was right. Hidan realized this now. And finally, Hidan found what ailed him more than anything. The things he wished to say most to his comrade. Now the unspoken words put a pressure on his chest, and though it only existed as a phantom limb, he felt the weight greater than that of the tons of dirt piled upon him.

_Kakuzu, _he thinks, but doesn't risk speaking for he knows the earth will cascade down into his mouth. _I love you..._

...The sun was setting fast. Various shades of orange melded together as the red orb above left the hemisphere. Kakuzu had to hurry. He wouldn't be able to properly reconstruct what was left of his partner without daylight. That is, if there was enough left of Hidan to build back up.

Hours of digging had sloughed away the skin on his hands. Grime was packed deep in the crevices of his raw flesh, opening a door for infection, and his veins felt as though they had turned to lead inside his arms. The muscles from the bankers shoulders down to his fingers all cramped, clenching so tight it felt like a hundred tourniquets strangled each individual tendon, so painfully that Kakuzu had to clench his teeth together to prevent a groan of pain from escaping his lips. Eventually his tense jaw began to ache. God, he was tired.

After a while, all he could do was weakly wipe away the dirt with trembling hands. The miser couldn't claw at the dirt; his fingers had locked up and refused to move fluently. He pauses and wipes his face with his hands, smearing blood and filth on his cheeks, but he can't muster the energy to care. A feeling of defeat had befallen him. Kakuzu hasn't felt such a way in a long time, and he hates his weakness. He feels the urge to cry in anger, but can't. He has never allowed himself to cry, not since the last tears he shed in that prison cell, plus he was too dehydrated to even sweat.

The stitched nin looks up. He had managed to dig a few feet down but there was still a lot to dig through. Also, the further he dug into the ground, some sort of pungent odor became more prominent. He hoped the scent pillowing in his nostrils wasn't Hidan's decaying flesh. As he gazes into the sky, it begins to spin. He grunts and closes his eyes. They feel like they are rotating in their sockets. Vertigo. "Damn," he mutters to himself. Digging through a mound of shit in the half hearted hopes of finding something that will bring him happiness, but more often than not only brings sadness. _Story of my fucking life, _the bitter shinobi thinks. But he isn't one to excessively bitch about everything. Its a stupid waste of time, a poor habit of mankind. Frustrated, he fervently continues scraping away the dirt, despite the fresh scarlet starting to pour from the shredded meat of his palms, despite his aching fingers, despite it all, he dug on.

Only now does he realize that he hasn't heard any noises emitting from under him in quite a while. Had Hidan...died? Kakuzu quickly pushes the thought away. He probably passed out. That must be it. Just then, something caught the bankers eye. Something bright against a pastel brown background. Kakuzu carefully pinched it between his index finger and thumb. He rolled it between his fingers, causing the stiff stringy material to separate and reveal itself as individual locks of hair. The elder akatsukis breath catches in his throat. He scoops up a few more handful of dirt and finally unearths Hidan's face.

Relief floods Kakuzu. He tentatively tries raising Hidan's head a bit and finds that it isn't connected to the rest of his body, and with that his joy dissipates. Kakuzu bites his lip and observes the head in his hands as he tries to brush away the blood and muck that paints the masochists pale face. His partners skin shows a terrible pallor, so white that he is almost transparent, his lips are a light shade of blue, and dark circles shadow his closed eyes.

Something tightens in Kakuzu's chest. He cradles his allies head in one arm as he climbs out of the depression in the earth, happy to be away from that awful smell. Gently, he lays Hidan's head down in a patch of grass. After a moment, the priests' eyelids flutter open. The reddish-pink orbs that once shined with light were now dull with exhaustion and confusion. Kakuzu watches the bleary eyes, squinting from the sudden exposure to light, roll about before locking on to his face. "Kakuzu..?" The miser reaches out and grazes Hidan's jawline with his fingers.

"Yeah, it's me. Where is the rest of your body?" Kakuzu could see his partners consciousness slipping away.

"I thinks it all down there..somewhere..." he spoke in a slurred tone, then he passes out. Kakuzu grimaces, clenching and unclenching his fists. So he was right. The odor down there came from Hidan's rotting carcass. He rises and walks back to the lip of the crater. "Just hang on," he mutters. Then he jumps.

When his feet hit the ground, agony seizes him. His legs give way and he fumbles to his knees. The sadist slams his hands down to catch himself and he lets out a cry of pain as the hurting that had somewhat subsided in his palms returns with a vengeance. He clenches his teeth so tight that he is amazed they haven't cracked yet. Kakuzu looks back up to the sky. The light was dying fast. He would have to move with haste. He draws in a large gulp of rank air and digs.

**Yay, chapter 2 is done! The people who read the old story may realize that I combined chapters 2 & 3 to make this one. They were pretty short originally so I went ahead and put them together. I hope you all enjoy this, and I have a question to ask in the hopes that someone can provide an answer; where can I purchase a Kakuzu plush doll? I need one because I have an unhealthy obsession with him and i spent two hours looking for one online yesterday with no luck. If you can help me out, I'd really appreciate it. Have a pleasant day, everyone!**


	3. Chapter 3

From an opposing view point, Kakuzu figures he must look crazy. Filthy and digging madly in a six foot deep hole and for what? To find a dismembered corpse. He shudders in disgust when his fingers brush over shredded, warm, meaty flesh. He ignores the bit of fatty mush and focuses on the limb peeking out from the dirt clods. The stitched nin forces his fingers into the soft soil and grips the piece of his comrades being. Lifting it, the limb reveals itself as one of Hidan's arms, though it is missing its thumb and pinkie. Kakuzu sighs, knowing he still has much to do. He has found only one of possibly a thousand pieces. He makes a wry face and angles his arm behind him, then tosses the limb upwards to the ground above. "Fuck!" he shouts to the sky.

The strengthening of the putrid, tart odor on his palate indicates that Hidan had been down here for a day or two, Kakuzu concludes, and that he was drawing closer to what he needs to find. He walks a few paces to the left, scoops up more earth, and finds another arm with the hand cut off at the wrist. The sadist throws the body part up so it may join its counterpart on the grass. He continues pacing about, his shoes making an ugly squelching sound as the land on hulls of his scattered partner. Repeating the tedious walk, dig, walk eventually led to Kakuzu's finding of the missing hand, all fingers gone except the thumb. The internal bright white bones stand out like lustrous gems embedded in a crown.

The banker quickly finds the fingers for both hands afterwards. He had thrown the hand out of the hole, but he can't risk doing the same with the digits. Some stray animal may pick them up to snack on. Instead, as disgusting as it is, Kakuzu crams them into his pockets. The feeling of the body fragments poking at his thighs sends chills throughout him. His stomach wrenches, but he almost has all the pieces to this grotesque puzzle. Minutes drag on slowly in the pit, but Kakuzu finds legs, thighs, toes and feet in succession. He even manages to find Hidan's 'special organ', which Kakuzu had mistook as some sort of insect before he brushed the dirt off of it. One by one he throws them upwards. How hilarious it would be, the miser muses, if someone were to stumble into this little section of woodland and found a severed head lying next to a hole where limbs seemed to fly up out of nowhere. The morbid thought manages to make Kakuzu give a small smile as he pictures the horrified face of some random person.

Trudging back to the center of the hellish cavern, Kakuzu falls to his knees, braces his hands on a large pillow of soil, and pushes. He draws back and sees half of the priests torso. The abdomen has been cutoff a little below the bellybutton, the neck sticking up like an odd abnormal growth, and organs spill out of the opening. Something pink writhes in the greyish organs, and upon closer inspecting, Kakuzu finds that the squirming mass was a pile of worms. Revolted, Kakuzu draws his arm up to cover his mouth, a strange thing that all people seemed to do when shocked or appalled.

He carefully picks the grubs off of the innards and forces the organs back into the cadaver, feeling himself grow pale as he does so. The sadist draws a shaky breath and places the opening in the carcass on his arm to hold the inner contents in place. Kakuzu gags as he climbs up from the hell hole and uses some small threads to hold the piece of his masochistic companion to his chest. Yes, he had forced his hand into many chest cavities to reap his hearts from their hosts, and yes, he had dismembered his fair share of bodies, but holding the remnants of the body of someone he was concerned about made his stomach feel like it had dropped to his feet.

The banker grips a handful of weeds and struggles to get himself up over the edge of the crater. He flops onto his side when he makes it up. Still clutching his partner to his chest, Kakuzu lays there for a moment so he may catch his breath. When his lungs are full, he crawls over to Hidan, not trusting his aching feet to support him. He casts a glance toward the priests' head. Night was starting to settle in, a light blue powdering the dull orange sky. It would be damn near impossible to do this in the dark, but Kakuzu had no choice.

Kakuzu reaches into his pocket and withdraws several pale slender fingers. They feel cold and clammy. Kakuzu observes the human puzzle and contemplates a strategy. _The head is the only source of energy, so that needs to be attached quickly before the rest deteriorates further, but the entire body needs to be put together before energy can flow properly, _he thinks as he gnaws on his lip, a habit he thought he had dropped a long time ago. _The position of the organs might not effect him too much. As long as they start functioning again, that's all that matters. So, I mostly just need the torso in place, since the most important pieces reside there._ The miser brings the two halves of the torso together. He places the slimy, snake-like intestines back inside the halves to the best of his ability.

Mustering up the last ounces of his chakra, Kakuzu uses his tendrils to stitch up Hidan. As he watches the pointed black strings poke through porcelain skin, the miser uses his hands to pop bones back into place. The lack of light made the ordeal much more awkward; Kakuzu was certain that some fingers had been attached to the wrong hand. In the faint moonlight, Kakuzu sits back on his knees and simply stares at Hidan, thick stitches now laced throughout his skin. _Is this how I look to others?_ Kakuzu ponders. He has never been narcissistic. He found himself neither ugly nor beautiful, with or without multiple stitches and scars. But seeing Hidan this way makes the miser think about his own appearance. By no means was Hidan unsightly. He was usually well-kempt and has a body most men strive to have. But the black lines that were holding him together just seemed strange_. Is that how others feel towards me when they see me without my cloak and mask? Do they see a war torn man whose body looks in shambles? Am I as horrid as they said..? _

Kakuzu halts the memories before they start. He doesn't want to remember what they said. It doesn't matter, none of it does. He's okay the way he is, right? He's had people who desired him before solely because of his looks, as shallow as that is. _But does Hidan?_

"God dammit," the ex-taki nin groans. Why was he thinking this way? It's childish. Needing to escape himself, he refocuses on tending to Hidan.

They need shelter, but Kakuzu knew his energy was spent. The looming trees should suffice, he decides. Kakuzu carefully pulls Hidan into his arms and lifts him. Despite Hidan's light weight, the sadists tired hands struggle to hold the boy. No, Hidan wasn't a child, but huddled in his arms in such a manner made Hidan look defenseless and innocent to Kakuzu, like a sleeping kid cuddled up to his parent.

The older akatsuki lays his younger counterpart down next to one of the trees, making sure to prop Hidan's head up on a large root to make the priest as comfortable as possible. Then Kakuzu realizes something. Hidan was still naked. His clothes had been singed off of him. Kakuzu's cheeks grow a bit warm when, because of some stupid impulse, he glances down towards the lower part of his comrades body. He couldn't let the little loudmouth run around in such a state. He hastily removes his tattered shirt, cursing himself all the while. Kakuzu crawls over to Hidan's side, raises him up, and slips the cloth over him. The shirt is large on Hidan's smaller frame, but it will do. The miser then uses the white belt tied around the fabric to cover Hidan's manhood. Kakuzu rotates his shoulder to work out a kink and decides to go look for another water source. He needs to clean their wounds as soon as possible.

He rises to his feet, ready to go, but trips over nothing. He reluctantly catches himself, but all the forgotten pain and weariness falls upon him like a ton of bricks. Moaning, he falls to his knees, his fingers tearing on the rough texture of the sapling. The banker flops over to the side so his back rests on the tree, his stitches catching on the spiny wood, and throws up a few thin strands of clear liquid that burns as it surges up his throat. Small pinpricks of light dot the black sky and the full radiant moon now shines brightly in its midst, its view only obstructed by slowly churning, transparent grey clouds. The sky mixes together and swirls before Kakuzu's eyes. His eyelids sag and he then falls into a deep, fitful slumber.

...Hidan sluggishly raises a hand to his throbbing head. Jashin, his head hurt so fucking bad. With each pulse the radiating pain drilled further into his skull. He draws in a pained breath and is pleasantly surprised to find that his chest feels lighter and the oxygen now tastes crisp and clean. But how could that be? When did the pressure leave? Everything then rushes back to him. Kakuzu! His eyes open and he quickly sits up. "Ah, fuckin' hell," he grumbles at his aching body. Upon inspecting himself, he finds black lines across his skin and Kakuzu's dark stone colored shirt draped over him. This meant he was out of the ground. He looks at the grass around him and the somber overcast sky above him. The sights were the most beautiful he had ever seen. Kakuzu HAD saved him, it wasn't a dream! a large grin splits the albinos face.

"Kakuzu!" he calls joyously, but his grin wavers and withers like a rapidly aging flower when he sees his parter laying against the tree adjacent to where he sat. The elder akatsuki was slumped over, grime and blood smeared all over him. Knowing the stitches keeping him together were still fresh and could break with only a slight jerk, Hidan rises and walks cautiously over to the older shinobi. He sinks down next to the elder, lightly cups the tan face in his hands, and lifts the misers head. His cheeks look hollowed, his lips slightly parted, and he seems to have aged several years. Kakuzu was 91, but he looked like he was in his thrirties, with his fit body and long mocha brown hair that never seemed to lose its pigment. But now, he looks fifty.

His entire body has lacerations strewn about, but the condition of his large hands make Hidan gasp upon seeing them. The younger male wraps a pale hand around his comrades tattooed wrist and raises the hand upwards. Hidan lightly srokes the raw flesh with his finger tips, biting his lip as he does so. _Kakuzu did this to himself to save me, _he thinks, guilt gnawing at his belly. What is one to do in this sort of situation? With such unfavorable circumstances, how could one remedy it? How to mitigate this fear, this helpless feeling?

Drawing no conclusions, Hidan climbs into Kakuzu's lap. Maybe if they were closer, Hidan wouldn't feel so alone. Seeing the gradual rise and fall of Kakuzu's chest eases the priests nerves a little, but they need immediate medical care, and he was no medic. At this time, the clouds decide to release a cold, numbing deluge. Each drop of water stings as it falls into Hidan's cuts.

"Jashin-damned weather," he yells to the vast emptiness above. "Fuck it all to hell.."

Kakuzu couldn't just sit in the rain. Hidan draws him into his arms, wrapping one pasty arm around the scarred nins torso and entangling one hand in Kakuzu's hair, and holds his comrade tightly against him. Hidan could never tell this man his true feelings. What if Kakuzu grew disgusted with Hidan because of it and abandoned him? Requested a new partner and left him alone? The jashinist doesn't want to imagine it. He instead centers his attention on the feeling of Kakuzu's bare skin against his arms and partially exposed chest. _I__f he went this far to help me, he must not hate me too much, right?_ Hidan thinks hopefully.

The small breaths that warm Hidan's collar bone electrify his skin and send chills down his spine. Though the world around him was frigid and Kakuzu's skin felt icy to the touch, secret desire sent waves of warmth through the albino. Holding the injured akatsuki this way renews Hidan with new-found strength. Now he understood why Konan was so protective over Pein, or why Kisame had a habit of hovering over Itachi. It felt good, being able to shield someone you care for. Hidan has never wanted anybody this way before, for he was always occupied serving his lord, but holding the man he has craved since they first crossed paths in his arms fueled his yearning even more.

Hardly thinking, the pious akatsuki lays his partner back against the tall oak and caresses his stitch laced cheek. The heat that emits from it tells Hidan that the banker has a fever. Hidan swears under his breath and brushes Kakuzu's hair out of his face. _He really is pretty damn good looking, _the masochist thinks and trails his hand down his counterparts neck, tracing the veins and creases in it, and brings his hand lower to Kakuzu's torso. He fondles his unconscious comrade, runs his alabaster hands down the defined tan chest and traces its contours with his fingers. Hidan runs his tongue over his chapped pink lips. Kakuzu's well built body seemed to be beckoning Hidan's hands, asking him to touch the taut muscles, willing him to feel all of Kakuzu. The temptation was overpowering. Should he? He may never get another chance to do it. But still...

"Having fun?" A voice asked. A deep, serious tone that was all too familiar to Hidan. Kakuzu was awake. And Hidan's hand were still splayed over Kakuzu's exposed frame.

Hidan feels his cheeks grow hot and he squeamishly jerks his hands away when his eyes meet Kakuzu's oddly colored orbs, certain that Kakuzu was going to backhand him.

"Judging by the look on your face, I assume you were," says the miser, his face still as stone and his eyes glaring into Hidan's.

"Shut your damned mouth!" Hidan barks indignantly. "I was just..checking your vital signs!" Then Kakuzu's eyes expression turns softer. His gleaming eyes taunt Hidan and then he does something Hidan had only seen him do once or twice in all the time he'd known him; Kakuzu smirks. _This cheeky bastard..! _Hidan growls in his mind.

"Well, it's good to see your awake and functional," the older ninja mutters, his voice still slurred by sleep. Hidan doesn't reply, for he was too shocked by Kakuzu's attitude. He figured Kakuzu would have chucked him back into that godforsaken pit by now. The awkward silence that follows makes the atmosphere unsettling so Hidan casts his eyes everywhere except towards Kakuzu, only to end up having his attention drawn back to the miser when Kakuzu gingerly punches his shoulder.

The ex-taki yawns then says, "Don't freeze up on me now; I saved your sorry ass, and now you have to do the same for me."

Hidan gets up to his feet, as does Kakuzu, and drapes Kakuzu's muscular arm over his shoulders. "I guess I owe you this much," the priest grunts as he helps his partner to his feet, placing one hand on the small of Kakuzu's back.

"Boy, you owe me a hell of a lot more than this," the older male mutters and smirks again. "Don't get any ideas now, Hidan, with your hand so low down my back."

"I thought I already told you to shut your fucking hole!" Hidan spits. Had he not known better, he would've sworn Kakuzu was flirting with him. Still, it was nice to have Kakuzu by his side again, even if he was being a teasing asshole. Maybe the stitched nin was acting this way for a reason. Was he happy too? Hidan has never seen him act so jovial before. _Maybe, _Hidan muses, _he likes me too. _An impossible dream, yes, but it made Hidan feel good. _Maybe criminals can find love. Some__how, I might be able to be_ _loved... _


	4. Chapter 4

The two fugitives press on through the dense woodland in a stumbling gait, bearing one anothers weight to maintain their balance. Both men were on their last legs. Kakuzu had said that contacting leader was top priority, but Hidan was much more concerned with Kakuzu's well being. The voice of the shadow brat reverberates once again in Hidan's mind. _You see the blood on your spike isn't mine; it's your partners. _An icy chill tickles Hidan's spine and he feels himself blanch even more. The zealot had totally forgotten those words. But that meant...

Hidan drags his dry tongue over his chapped lips. "Oi, Kakuzu."

"Yes?"

"How many hearts do you have left?"

Hidan's eyes roam over Kakuzu's face that grows contorted as he thinks. The thick silence pricks at the albinos skin. How had Kakuzu wound up in such a ruinous state? In all the battles they'd fought together, no man nor army had managed to wear Kakuzu down. They all fell to his hand the way trees fall to lightning. So what sort of events occurred in the lapse of time in which they had been separated? Finally, Kakuzu speaks.

"Not sure," he mutters. Not sure? What the hell did he mean, 'not sure'? Hidan asks him why does he not know, to which Kakuzu replies;

"Because my memory's fucked up. Dying tends to do that. I remember getting a fist through my chest, so that definitely eliminated one. But then, at one point, I suddenly collapsed. Some sort of pain just went through me, like somebody had hammered a massive nail through me, and then everything went black." At this point, Hidan's stomach is doing somersaults inside him. _Should I tell him? Will he be angry?, _the zealots mind races. "After that, I got hit with some odd jutsu. I'm assuming its some sort of mutation of the wind style jutsu Deidara told us about. I passed out again afterwards, but the emptiness lasted longer than usual. So I'm guessing I have one heart left."

And with that, Hidan's own heart catches in his throat. _One?! _How could that be? His blood turns into an icy slush in his veins. It felt like a syringe had been plunged into his wrist and spilled some sort of drug. That's how Hidan felt every day, with Kakuzu at his side. His partner put him in a state of mind-numbing euphoria, but like medicine, it's all a double edged blade. Something that makes you feel good but also comes with a slew of side effects that are most unpleasant. Kakuzu made the zealot feel anger and dread, to the point of making such ill feelings outweigh the good ones. The anger is born from jealousy and the misers own insensitivity. Jealousy from when others get close to Kakuzu. Hidan wanted to keep the sadist all to himself. The sadists' tendency to be apathetic was cruel. Kakuzu was no fool, Hidan knows he can read people like books, so why was he always indifferent to Hidan's advances? Of course the masochist never outright flirted with the older male, but he did frequently drop not-so-subtle hints towards his affection. And finally, dread was brought on by the worry he felt for Kakuzu, especially now when he seemed to be teetering on the brink of death. _But for now I just have to get him somewhere safe, _the albino thinks.

Kakuzu must have noticed the conflicting emotions that dance across Hidan's face because he then says, "It's no big deal. I've lived through worse. I'll just get new hearts later."

Sighing, Hidan knew he had to tell Kakuzu of the incident with the kid with the lighter. Stones seem to form in his gut and cramp his stomach, but he forces himself to speak, his voice hoarse.

"Kakuzu, I need to tell you something," he starts. Kakuzu's brow quirks. Hidan swallows to loosen his tightening throat. "When I was dragged away by that kid, I thought I'd killed him, 'cause I cut his cheek and stabbed myself, but he got back up. Turns out, he somehow got your blood and used it, so...yeah."

The horrid quietness returns. Kakuzu casts him a crushing, unwavering gaze that betrays nothing. Hidan can't tell what he is feeling, has never been able to. The look stings, and the jashinist prays that his comrade will not be furious. Kakuzu looks back to the road ahead.

"Not your fault, I suppose. But after he fell, why didn't you try to run as soon as possible? That kid had bested you before, hell, he's gotten the better of us both, so I trust that you knew you shouldn't have stayed in a place he purposefully took you to."

Hidan bares his teeth. Yeah the little bastard had gotten the better of him, and that hurt his pride to lose to a child, but what hurt more-so was how Kakuzu voiced it. He wants his partner to see him as reliable and strong. How does he look in Kakuzu's eyes now?

"Well, I..." Hidan can't even manage to finish his sentence. He had stalled there, wanted a short reprieve before running back into battle. That was a mistake. _Would things have been better had I not stood there? _Such a thought makes Hidan want to weep, and looking at the man that clung to him intensifies the sorrow.

Kakuzu shakes his head and drops of rain fly from his saturated hair. "Be more careful next time," Is all he says.

The words sound clipped to Hidan's ears. Maybe Kakuzu said that to express his own concern, but Hidan cannot surmount the negative feelings that were taking over him. Just as Hidan goes to apologize, a torturous strain grips the base of his calf. He stumbles and lets go of Kakuzu, consequently causing the stitched nin to fall and his head collides with a rock. A sickening crack fills the air and the older male stops moving. Hidan watches in horror as blood pools and seeps into the soil around the bankers head.

"Shit! Kakuzu!" Hidan growls. Looking over his shoulder, he finds a kunai, embedded up to the hilt, stuck in the back of his leg. He frees the weapon from its fleshy sheath and crawls over to his partner. The jashinist rolls the comatose Kakuzu over onto his back and is met with an ugly gash present on his forehead, crimson flowing from the ripped skin. Hidan hears the muffled shuffling of damp grass. He turns on his knees and sees two men. Their clothes are shoddy and wrinkled, drenched by the condensation, and neither wore the traditional village bands. Hidan pegs them as rogues. One man was tall and lanky with hay thin hair that was plastered to his skull. The other man was more emaciated, his bony cheeks hollow and pocked with stubble, and his sepia hair was tied back in a loose ponytail.

"Are you sure about this?" The skinnier man asks, a look of uncertainty shown plain as day on his face. "They don't look like they would bring in much."

His gangly counterpart replies, "Doesn't matter. Any corpse can act as our meal ticket. They just want some organs."

These men, speaking in such cryptic, furtive whispers, make Hidan suspect that they are associated with the black market. Having gone to exchange points with Kakuzu multiple times, he knew that if loose tongues chattered away in its regards, they never lasted long. If authorities didn't catch the culprit, like a disease, word would quickly spread back to some supplier and the man who spoke would speak no more. Hidan had seen a fair share of extracted tongues in some of the markets. Out of habit, Hidan reaches for his scythe, only to find that it is not there. He remembers that he lost it before going into the forest. _Fucking hell! _he screams in his mind. The kunai would have to do.

The zealot grips the stained knife and, ignoring his punctured leg, lunges at the duo. He aims first for the tall man. Despite his gaunt appearance, the bony ninja was surprisingly fast. He easily parrys Hidan's swing and brings up his bony elbow. It connects with Hidan's cheek and when the skin pulls to the side, his lip splits. Still, the masochist holds his ground and manages to bury the kunai in the rogues thigh and brings it down to create a cratering gash. The priest smiles as bloodlust begins to consume him and wrenches the kunai out of the man, enjoying how the pained muscles clamp and tug at the intrusion, and attempts to stab his assailants kidney. Just as the tip of the blade pierces its prey, the starved males knee meets Hidan's temple.

The albino is launched backwards and skids across the wet grass. A ringing noise starts up in his ears and his vision blurs, making the world appear to be a melted hodge-podge painting of grey and green colors. Before he had a chance to regain his senses, the akatsuki feels himself picked up off the ground. He couldn't tell which man was holding him up and wielded what looked like a katana, the bright steel weapon that promises his demise. As the sword came closer and closer, Hidan managed to maneuver his lower torso away, causing a line of several stitches to snap and pop. Hidan recoveres his sight just as the katana slashes the malnourished mans side.

The lanky man looks shocked and draws his blade back in horror. After the shock settles, both men take on faces of anger. Hidan scrambles up and reclaimes his small blade. A scarlet river still flows heavily from the samurai-wannabe's side. He decides to sit down, a dizzy, vacant look becoming more apparent in his eyes, and sheds his jacket. Hidan watches him carefully, but all he does is press the cloth to his gouged flesh. A keening slicing sound diverts Hidan's attention. His gaze falls on the thinner man. The only thing noticeably different was his stance; his legs were perked out at awkward angles so his knees prominently jutted out as he seems to crouch. Squinting, Hidan peers at the enemy's scarred fists. Nothing is in them, Hidan thinks until he sees a slight glimmer reflect off what looks to be taut thread. Hidan recognizes the slivers of claws. Senbon needles.

The albinos eyes widen. "Shit!" he snarls under his breath. There must be multiple needles lodged in the gaps of his fingers. He glances back quickly to secure a route to run. He needed to avoid being hit since those things are always laced with some sort of poison.

"Shit!" he grumbles again. Just about a foot away lies Kakuzu. If he gets hit... No. The priest can't allow that to happen.

The senbon ninja leaps. Hidan frantically dashes towards his comrade. The air born shinobi lets the needles fly. Hidan jumps on top of Kakuzu and attempts to shield him. Needles prick Hidan's skin as they plunge in and some whiz by his ears. When the metal rain ends, Hidan lifts himself and sits back on the balls of his feet. His act of selfless valor was all for naught. A line of needles had embedded themselves in the left side of Kakuzu's neck, arm, his side and his thigh. Thin lines of a sickly lavender liquid trickle into the newly formed pinpricks and down the length of his tan skin as it overflows. Tendrils squirm out of the gashes in his arm and try to grip the foreign objects, but the needles are too narrow to grab and the black strings quickly fall listless around their owner.

"Kakuzu..!" Hidan said in a pained groan. The pair were closing in, ready to reap their prize. Hidan picks himself up out of the mud, agony and anger coalescing and making his blood boil. Salty tears threaten to flood his dark eyelids. Now he doesn't care if the stitches break. He couldn't care less if he fell apart. Never before has he felt such loss, such rage. Red lines the edges of his vision and, though his control over his mind ebbs away, his body moves skillfully as though the adroit hand of a puppet master is controlling him. His vision was gone, as was his sense of all else, but he felt hair in his hands, sinew splitting under his nails, and faint screams echo in his ears.

The jashinist slowly fades back into consciousness. How long had he been out? He groans and rubs his cheek, smearing something that felt like sticky bristles across his face. Pulling his hand away, he sees hair that has made stiff by dry blood. Surprised, Hidan looks up and surveys the extent of his 'work'.

The head of the man who threw the senbons had been bashed in on a tree. His brains decorate the nature around him, adding a bright red to the dark browns and greens of a forest dampened by rainfall. The back of his skull is non existent, only an abyss is present there. His body is left in an odd, warped position; his spine is twisted, making his chest jut forward though his shoulders slump on the ground. The lower half of his body is held up by erect legs, making him look like a macabre mannequin. The deceased males shirt had risen up to his neck, exposing ribs that jut out disturbingly, made more prominent by ugly shades of purple and yellow blossoming under each bone. His accomplice lay a couple feet away and in a condition just as morbid and appalling. Patches of hair were missing from his scalp, and his left cheek had been fishhooked, so the flap of cheek flops over onto the ground and reveals his yellowed, broken teeth. His scrawny neck had been wrenched to the side and his milky eyes were forever frozen in fear, his ruined mouth left agape in a silent scream.

Upon looking back at himself, Hidan finds fragments of gore under his nails and splattered across his hands and chest. He smirks. _Serves you bastards right, _he thinks. He remembers that he hasn't sacrificed anyone to Jashin-sama in a while, and though his sacrifices are typically presented much more elegantly, this mangled mess would have to do for now. _Now I just have to find... _he never finishes the thought. Spinning on his heels, the priest sees Kakuzu laying motionless. Hidan runs over and collapses at his loves side. Gazing at Kakuzu like this make tears pool in Hidan's eyes once again. Though he is terribly wounded, his face looks so peaceful to Hidan.

The priest hastily pulls the needles out of Kakuzu's side. He doesn't know what kind of poison laced these things. He decides to ask Sasori later. Hidan presses a blood-soaked hand to the stitched nins cheek. He felt so cold... Hidan presses his forehead to Kakuzu's. His chest barely rises and the breaths of his that fell on Hidan's face were small and weak. This couldn't be the end. Not yet.

Sitting back up on his knees, Hidan moves his hands to the line of stitches over his heart._ An eye for an eye, _the zealot thinks. He uses his fingers to probe at the incision and opens it. Forcing his fingers in, he hisses in pain as he pulls his hands in opposite directions and opens his chest. The loud snapping of stitches and Hidan's crys echo throughout the vacant forest. He forces a shaky hand into himself. working his hands through muscle, he soon finds his ribcage. He snakes his had between the gap in the bones and grips his heart. His heartbeat accelerates and his screams tear his throat as he tries to pull out the vital organ. somehow, he manages to free it. His screams die down so now he just groans and whimpers. How Kakuzu could stand the pain of putting one of these into his own chest, Hidan will never know. But Kakuzu was worth the torment.

Black dots and swirling silver lines begin to dance across his vision. Blinking hard, the albino opens his eyes again and hooks his fingers over the lip of the opening of Kakuzu's skin. He claws at the skin carefully, but Hidan still sees the underlying muscles contort and twitch in pain. At least it meant he was in a somewhat receptive state of being. Pushing through a mass of sinew and grey tendrils, the masochist forces his still beating heart into his dying partner. Hidan managed to get the heart situated in the open cavity, but the heart strings still connected them. Hidan entertained the thought of the connection, how they shared a synchronized heartbeat.

Snapping out of his daydreams, the akatsuki grips the lines of blood-conveying organ and pulls it out of his body and forced the rop-like flesh into Kakuzu. The tired tendrils shift slowly, but they eventually work the organ in. Hidan smiles wearily. He had saved his partner.

Fatigue starts to drag Hidan into a comatose state similar to his counterpart. He lays back in the grass beside his precious comrade, smiles again, and falls into the darkness.

**A/N: Finally, I finished this chapter! Jeez, this took forever. When I started typing, school finals started that week so I was holed up in my room and cram studying. But now I'm on summer break and I'm being way too lazy for my own good. It's like my Christmas resolutions; I never get around to fulfilling my plans until a month later. Oh well. Hope this chapter turned out okay, and thank you dear reader for taking time out of your day to read this. Have a pleasant day, everyone!**


	5. Chapter 5

The lenient stroke of rain is the first thing he feels. It is a chilling rain that seeps down deep and freezes bones. His eyes shoot open when agony explodes in his chest. Kakuzu was sure his heart was constricting, caving in on itself and ready to burst at any given moment. A dismal blue-grey sky seemed to hover only inches from his face. It was making Kakuzu feel claustrophobic. Since the time he spent in that cramped cell, shackled for days to a rotten wall and left only to the mercy of paranoid thoughts, he had developed a fear of tight spaces. But no one would ever know that. It didn't matter right now though. Judging by the pain in his head, he figures a rock or log is what rendered him unconscious when he fell. How long was he out for this time? Where was Hidan?

Kakuzu sits up and catches sight of the gore spread about. Two men had been savagely murdered, so Kakuzu concludes that he and Hidan had been ambushed and that Hidan had taken care of the bastards. Hacking coughs wrack the stitched nins body, causing a surge of bloody phlegm to choke him. Kakuzu spits out the thick fluid and cranes his neck to the right. Hidan lies a few inches away. his body stuck in crimson mud. Somehow, he looked even worse than he had when Kakuzu first got him out of that hole. Kakuzu's breath stops abruptly when he looks at Hidans chest, torn open and skin pulled taut where dislodged ribs pressed upwards. Purple and yellow bruises appear to grow darker before his eyes. He needed to inspect the wound further. He carefully leads his large hand into the fissure and feels only empty space where a heart should be. The miser pulls his hand back and notes the angling and condition of the wound. The procedure was done sloppily and awkwardly, as if in haste. Hidan's hands also wear gloves of blood. So he had done it himself...why?

Kakuzu looks at his own cut up chest and understands. The little zealot had given him his heart. Kakuzu grows still and feels his partners heart pulse inside him. "Goddamn.." he mutters. Kakuzu doesn't know how to deal with such a kindness, and he hated owing people. Now he owed this kid his life. But that's okay, he decides. He was alive, after all. _Just this once, I'll accept his help and I'll do my best to assist him. I guess it's the least I can do. _

A dark tendril slithers out of his arm and pierces Hidan's porcelain flesh. The living black string weaves itself into a row and sutures the gash. Kakuzu begins to wonder if an infection is present in his youngers ravaged body, so he leans down and presses his forehead to Hidan's. His skin is slick and cool, but the rain may have caused it to be this way. Tired and unable to maintain a steady thought, the miser just hovers over his counterpart. Then a sort of unseen force compels Kakuzu to move. He tilts his head to the side and presses his lips to Hidan's. Though the zealots surprisingly soft lips remain cold and listless, a heat forms in Kakuzu's lips and spreads throughout his face. He then wonders how much more enjoyable this would be if Hidan were awake.

Kakuzu abruptly jolts back and clamps a hand over is mouth. _What the fuck did I just do?_ he scolds himself. He hasn't kissed anyone in years, didn't have time for a serious relationship, and even when he committed himself to one, all his past lovers were women. Not once in his life had the banker desired another male, and yet he did _that _to his partner. To Hidan. He brushes his bangs out of his face and groans. It seems he was still prone to giving in to the stupid complexities of his own mind. The fact irritates him.

The ex-taki nin pushes his muddled thoughts to the furthest recesses of his mind and folds Hidan's arms over his torso, then draws the masochist into his arms. Hidan stays cuddled up to Kakuzu's chest like a child as he walks hurriedly though the woods. Being exposed to the elements in this condition for such a long period of time wasn't good for either of the two. Kakuzu knows they need shelter of some kind, somewhere to stay at least until the rain clouds faded away, but a land full of compact trees gave no hints of civilized life present in its solemn depths. Still, Konoha was known for being the land of trees, so it wouldn't be surprising to find some sort of housing in the middle of a forest. Only major cities cleared away the natural monuments to make for better working conditions.

After a period of slogging through the mire, Kakuzu's assumption was proven true. In a small chunk of cleared ground, a kempt little house sits in its midst with a worn trail leading directly to the door. The trail more likely than not led to some of town, making this place a deadly one to seek refuge in if Kakuzu was right, but it would have to do.

Kakuzu creeps up to the cream colored house and lays Hidan against its outer wall, just beside the door. The sadist then puts his ear to the door and listens for any noise as a thin string springs from his arm and snakes its way into the doors keyhole. Silence is all that falls on his ears, and the tendril unlatches the lock. A small _thunk _resounds through the door and Kakuzu lets himself in. He takes small cautious steps forward as he observes every nook and cranny of the squared room. It was a tidy little area, with a table in its center and a sink full of ice and some sort of meat near the right wall. The banker slinks furtively down the hall to the left. He comes across two closed doors. Repeating the same listening ritual he did before he entered this abode, Kakuzu hears nothing from behind either entryway. He opts to open the door to the right first and discovers a washroom. Then he opens opens the rectangular gate to the adjacent room and finds a bedroom.

Kakuzu carefully tiptoes into the room where a woman lays, wrapped in a cocoon of blankets like a swaddled infant, fast asleep. Slinking over to the woman with the mottled brown hair, tendrils squirm out of one of the incisions in the sadists arm as he violently yanks her hair back. Just as she begins to open her eyes, Kakuzu rams a mass of jiongu into her cranium. Her breath stops shortly thereafter. He considers taking the girls heart though she seemed to be an ordinary civilian with no chakra. Hidan just needed the organ to circulate his blood, they could replace it later.

Heavy footsteps boom and shake the small home. Kakuzu spins on his heel and sees a man run through the door. He crashes into the dresser across from where Kakuzu stands, but he quickly composes himself and stands up properly. The akatsuki notes that the man wears a headband with Konohas insignia. _Some sort of foot soldier, _he assumes. The shinobi seems confused, unable to comprehend what he sees, so he blindly charges. Kakuzu side steps his blow and quickly brings his hand up, palm forced outward. His large tan hand breaks the mans nose upon impact. Before the leaf ninja can retaliate, Kakuzu brings his palm to the mans nose again. This time, the loose cartilage gets shot up into his brain and the man is dead before he hits the ground.

The fallen soldier must have seen Hidan outside and rushed inside, unknowing that death would greet him there. Sighing a weary sigh, Kakuzu lifts the woman, soiled blankets and all, and slings her over his shoulder. Holding the dead weight steady takes a great amount of effort, but the tired rogue manages to stow the bundle in the attic of the house.

Returning to the bleak outside, Kakuzu finds Hidan in the same way he had left him. He picks Hidan up in the manner he had before and brings him into the household. He kicks the door to their temporary shelter close and locks it. He takes Hidan to the only bedroom and lays him down on the floor, next to the Konoha ninja. He takes the dead man and extracts his heart, then implants the organ in Hidan's chest. The floor is a blood-soaked mess after the procedure. Kakuzu takes the organ doners body and puts him in the attic as well.

Kakuzu stops in the middle of the hallway and groans as the walls start to slowly spin. There, he starts assessing his priorities to try and distract himself from the dizziness. Resting seemed like a great idea, and a bite to eat didn't sound half bad either. But most of all, he needed a shower; lacerations ran up one side his body and down the other, dried mud and blood further darkened his already tanned skin, and the scents of nature and fluids mingled into a pungent aroma that clouded around him. He goes back to the room and lays his partner on the somewhat bloodied mattress and then quickly goes to the bathroom.

Sure, he had gone days without showers in the past, but Kakuzu always maintained his personal hygiene well. Being like this made his skin crawl. He strips off what little ruined clothes he has left and cranks the hot water valve until it won't turn anymore. He gradually immerses himself in the scalding shower, grunting in pain as, inch by inch, the water runs over all his wounds. Once accustomed to the heat, Kakuzu lathers a washcloth and begins harshly scrubbing himself until his skin is red and raw.

Gradually, his rough washing slows to a halfhearted grazing as his mind wanders. _What happens after this?, _he thinks. Of course he didn't expect some sort of medal for valor from Pein. He was a criminal playing a dangerous game and all slip ups were his own fault, no one would help carry his burdens. Maybe a new system should be devised. Would three men per cell be too much? Probably. And Kakuzu didn't need another immortal fanatic preacher squawking in his ears. This was all just a one time thing. No way would he allow himself to be bested like this again. Never had he fallen fallen so hard since his plight in Takigakure. He would have to make sure to inform everyone of the strength of the leaf villages' militia. The shinobi from there had managed to kill Sasori, so he expected them to be powerful, but Kakuzu hadn't anticipated their numbers.

And what of Hidan? _What _of _Hidan?,_ Kakuzu thinks, irritated. The banker had done something dumb by kissing his companion. _No one needs to know,_ he reminds himself. People do stupid shit when stressed, so that's all it was. Kakuzu knows he isn't cutout for the typical family lifestyle. It's not like after so many years he could turn around and try to start over, not with so much blood on his hands. His violent tendencies have become dyed in the wool of his being. He would never be able to return to a warm home where a smiling lover would accept him with open arms. None of the akatsuki would. It's one of the reasons he joined; to satisfy his need to belong. He needed something to give him worth, and Pein gave that to him. So what point is there in picturing something more than a mere work-related partnership with Hidan?

It was wrong on many levels. First off, they were both men. Kakuzu had no problem with men being together, one of his male friends in Taki had a male lover, but he just couldn't see himself the same way. Secondly, they were criminals with different goals. Managing the organization always kept them busy which is why they rarely met in a group. It was hard to keep track of and contact anyone else when they were constantly out and about. Even if they are partners, Hidan was always preoccupied with his religion as Kakuzu was with finances, and it would just complicate things. Lastly, it's Hidan for God's sake. Someone so totally different from himself, Kakuzu could hardly fathom ever getting any closer to the priest. Yet, in the plains of his imagination, he can't help but think of how it would feel to be embraced by his partner. Deep down, he knows he yearns to be loved again. He didn't want a fling. He was sick of all the passing, unreliable things in life. He needed some sort of stability. Dying alone scared him. For what reason was he born? A death were no one cared would prove that his life was meaningless. _Maybe I can get him to care about me...fuck, that's the most idiotic thought I've ever had. What makes that pious brat so special, anyways?  
_

The sadist shuts off the water and steps out of the shower, feeling much better but much more tired. _I wonder if Hidan is awake? _Kakuzu wraps a towel around his waist and uses another cloth to dry his hair as he opens the bathroom door.

**Another chapter done. Woot! I wonder if the last chapter was too gory, and I wonder if this one feels like too little is happening. What do you guys think? I have a problem with adding too much detail/filler stuff in my writings. I welcome all criticisms if you have any. Oh, and to my best friend who says I'm not aggressive enough in these author notes, you can't let the people know your a pessimistic bastard who kicks puppies and has a secret base in Poland which is being used to prepare weapons to dominate Turkmenistan. Not that I'm like that. I'm just giving an example. *Cough cough***


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